Eyehook fastener automatic installing machine

ABSTRACT

A U-shaped garment fastener adapted to be readily self-loaded into a clenching press. The components of a complete fastener are secured to a backing material so that two chains of them can be placed in a magazine and fed into the press. Both halves of the fastener are similar to eliminate duplicate parts.

United States Patent 91 I Feldheim et al. [451 Jan. 2, 1973 EYEHOOK FASTENER AUTOMATIC [56] References Cited INSTALLING MACHINE UNITED STATES PATENTS [76] Inventors: Gabor Z. Feldheim; Andrew Feldheim, both of 90 George Street 3,305,906 2/196; Patrick ..24l227 S 1,026,050 5/191 Reber ..206/46 l-l it New South wales Ans 2,743,445 5/l956 Lerner ..206/56 DF Filed! 1970 Primary Examiner-William T. Dixson, Jr. [21] APP] 38,799 Attorney-Stevens, Davis, Miller & Mosher [57 ABSTRACT [30] Foreign Application Priority Data I v -A U-shaped garment fastener adapted to be readily May 26, Australia elf loaded into a clenching press The components of i a complete fastener are secured to a backing material [52] US. Cl ..206/56 DI", 24/227, 227/18 so that two chains of them can be placed in a 3 6 2 magazine and fed into the press. Both halves of the I u a a fastener are similar to eliminate duplicate parts.

2 Claims, 16 Drawing Figures This invention relates to self loading clenching presses, employing travelling chains of components for the formation of fasteners in or on garments.

It is known to use so-called hook and eye fasteners consisting of a hollow eye and a separate plate and a canvas protecting said plate, which engage with a cantilever hook and a separate plate and a canvas protecting said plate. These parts are customarily assembled upon the garment by means of deformable prongs clenched tightly over the plate, between the jaws of a clenching press. Some of said clenching presses are power operated, the six necessary fastener parts being loaded in the jaws by elaborate feeding mechanisms. The cost of a power operated clenching press is generally found unjustified and so the great majority of clenching presses in present use are foot operated. In the latter case, however, the six separate components of the fasteners are loaded into the machine manually thereby wasting three-quarters of the assembly time with non-essential work.

It is an object of the present invention, in one of its aspects, to produce means for self loading garment fasteners suitable for foot operated clenching presses.

Another object of this invention is to shape and to prearrange parts of garment fastener components so as to make the self-loading of clenching presses, even without power, readily possible.

Another object of the invention is to prevent crushing of installed fasteners during heavy trouser-pressing operations. Conventional hook and eye" fasteners are known to be easily crushed during such operations.

Another object of the invention is to ensure bucklefree, flat clenching of the prongs of a garment fastener, in contrast with said hook and eye fasteners, which tended to buckle.

Another object of the invention is to reduce the six necessary dissimilar parts of the hook and eye fasteners, which tended to buckle.

Another object of the invention is to reduce the six necessary dissimilar parts of a the hook and eye fasteners to two parts only.

Certain embodiments of the invention will be described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings in which similar references indicate corresponding parts and in which:

FIG. 1 shows, in side elevation, a machine for fixing staples and plates to a garment,

FIG. 2 shows, partly in section, an enlarged view of the yoke of the machine of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 shows, partly in section, aview alongthe line 3-3 of FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 shows, in front elevation, a chain of staples,

' FIG. 5 shows, in plan view, the apparatus of FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 shows, partly in section, a viewalong the line 6-6 of FIG. 4,

FIG. 7 shows a chain of plates for co-acting with said staples,

FIG. 8 shows, in section, a view along the line 8-8 of FIG. 7,

FIG. 9 shows, in end elevation, a hook and eye" fastener of the prior art,

FIG. 10 shows, in side elevation, a section along the line 10-10 of FIG. 9,

FIG. 11 shows, in end elevation, a co-acting pair of fasteners each constructed in accordance with the invention,

FIG. 12 shows, in side elevation, a section along the line 12-12 of FIG. 11, and

FIG. 13 shows a trough for feeding a chain of said plates when supported by a backing.

FIG. 14 shows the staple and plate in isometric view.

FIG. 15 is an isometric view of the magazine comprising the chain of staples and chain of plates.

FIG. 16 is a partially cut-away view of two of the inventive fasteners in their cooperatively engaged relationship.

The objects of the invention are obtained firstly by eliminating the closed bent end hook construction (shown in FIGS. 9 and 10) of the conventional hook and eye fastener. This results in a fastener in the shape of an open ended channel or tunnel performing equally the duties both of the hook and that of the eye (as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12). This last-mentioned arrangement will be hereinafter referred to as an eyehook in contrast with said conventional hook and eye" fastener. Eyehooks, oriented in one direction, are joined by a backing to form a chain as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, which will fit over a rail leading into a clenching press by virtue of the open ended channel section of said eyehooks. Similarly, a chain of plates as shown in FIG. 7 may be formed by attaching them to their corresponding backings as shown. The plate chain may be fed into the clenching press by means of the trough shown in FIG. 13, as hereinafter described.

The clenching press has means provided by which one prearranged pair of eyehooks and plates is advanced upon the completion of the previous clenching operation automatically into the clenching region of the press.

The absence of the bent cantilever shape of the hook and the presence of the rigid shoulders of the U-shaped eyehook, makes this fastener substantially uncrushable during trouser-pressing operations.

Buckle-free and flat closure of the prongs is ensured by means of stress-raising grooves provided at the roots of the prongs Since the eyehook replaces both the conventional hook and the eye, and since the canvas now forms part of the plate, the total number of dissimilar parts of a fastener pair has been reduced from six to two.

Upon referring to the drawings it will be seen that a worktable 9 is slidable with respect to a rail 10 onto which the plates 3 are fed. The rail 11 supports the staples l. The rails 10 and are held a fixed distance apart by the spacer 12 and the rail 10 is fixed to the column 13 at the region 14. The yoke 15 is slidable with respect to the column 13, which passes through the block 16 and is caused to move downwards when the pedal 17 is depressed. The yoke 15 isurged towards its upper position by the spring 18 owing to the presence of the collar 19 which is fixed to the column A clamp 20 is provided to hold a garment in contact with the upper surface of the worktable 9 owing to the action of the spring 21 which is capable of beingreleased by depression of the pedal 22. The die 23 is provided for wrapping the prongs S'of the staples 1 around respective plates 3.

As shown in FIG. 1 the worktable 9 is in its nonworking position, i.e. in its garment-loading and clamping position. It is kept in this position by the action of the flat coiled spring 24. In use, the table 9'is pushed by an operator into its working position shown in FIG. 2.

Assuming now that a garment has been positioned and clamped, the table 9 is pushed to its working position and the pedal 17 is depressed. This causes the working head 26 to descend and carry one staple with it owing to the action of the spring-loaded support -25 upon said working head. Said movement also causes the backing 2 to be cut off the strip of staples by means of the blade 27. The prongs then pass through the garment and are formed around a plate 3 by the die 23. Upon releasing the pedal 17 the head 26 ascends. The pedal 22 is then depressed to release the spring 21, the garment is removed from contact with the support 25, the table 9 is released and the machine again assumes the garment-loading or non-working position.

It will be seen that when the table 9 is pushed to its working position, i.e. to the left as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2,- the slide 40 moves to the left due to the relative movement of said table. To assist this movement the slot 28 in the rail is provided to guide said slide. When the latter contacts the end of the slot 28 at the region 29 the table 9 continues to move to the left and the edge 30 of the aperture in the table 9 contacts the cam 31 which thus rotates about the pin 37 attached to the slide 40 and pulls the arms 32 on to the gripping pads 33 and 34 which thus grip the backing strips 2 and 6 When the table 9 is released by the operator it moves to the right as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and moves the slide 40 with it. The gripping pads 33 and 34 move the strip of staples and plates to the right for a distance equal to the width of one staple and one plate until stopped by the die 23 and the support 25. The gripping pads 33 and 34 then slide upon the backing strips 2 and 6 until said table is fully released. When the slide 40 comes to the end of the slot 28 at the region 35 said table continues to move and the edge 30 of said aperture finally contacts the cam 31 and the edge 36 of said aperture, thereby causing said cam to rotate whereupon the arms 32 release their pressure on the gripping pads 33 and 34. This allows the table 9 to be pushed to the left without having said gripping pads holding the backing strips 2 and 6.

The interlocking device 37 prevents the working head 26 from descending until the table 9 is in said working position. Thus the slot 38 on the yoke env gages the key 39 on the table 9 until the latter is in a position wherein the working head 26 may descend.

The die 34 is of deep profile construction and the coacting parts 1 and 3 of said fastener comprise substan tially identical channel-sectioned members. This results in members of such a shape that they are adapted to be subjected to pressure of the kind likely to be encountered during pressing operations.

It will be seen that the use of an oscillating table in said machine permits a work-piece to be located on an unobstructed work-table which is only brought under the assembly die at the time of assembly, thus speeding the positioning of the work-piece on one hand and securing the safety of the operator on the other.

The use of backings on the two chains has the advantage that no separate reinforcing canvas" is needed for the strips because sections of said backings may be cut off automatically during assembly and caused to remain between the fasteners and the cloth of the garment.

It will be appreciated that one advantage of the fasteners shown in FIGS. 4 to 8 resides in the fact that a single die press instead of the prior known two die type press is sufiicient for assembly. Furthermore, the prongs 5 of the staples l employed for attaching said fasteners to the cloth are preferably given a pair of indentations 41 in the roots thereof, thereby producing a stress concentration during their forming operation. This results in both a reduced forming load and also a substantially buckle-free closure. That is to say, the stress in the body of each prong will not approach the yield value during forming, and the prongs will consequently fold back flat after this operation. This is in contrast with known hook and eye fasteners which have tended to buckle on assembly.

Finally, the U-shaped section of the fasteners constructed in accordance with the invention not only ensures the above-described shoulder strength which resists crushing, but enables the above described simple arrangement for feeding said fasteners as a chain to the assembly region.

The fact that the fasteners, constructed in accordance with the invention, are necessarily presorted as distinct from the random feeding of the separate parts to prior art machines results in the possibility of constructing a manually operated automatic machine which cuts down the assembly time of the fasteners by over percent of the present requirement without the forbiddingly high increase in the initial cost of power operated assembly installations.

We claim:

1. A magazine of garment fasteners,

. each fastener comprising a U-sectioned staple element one end of the base of which extends longitudinally perpendicular to the U-section forming a tongue, and each of the free limbs of the U-section comprising a shoulder portion and prong portion, the prong portion extending beyond and being narrower than the shoulder portion, said prongs adapted to be bent toward one another to engage a complementary base member, and said tongue being slightly narrower than the distance between the shoulder portions of the U-section; and

a base member comprising a flat plate of about the same width as said staple, said base member having notches in the longitudinal edges thereof, closer to one end hereof, for receiving the prongs of said staple member, the distance between the inner edges of said notches being about equal to the distance between the prongs in the staple member, said base and said staple member being adapted to engage one another for forming an open tunnel between said base member and the U- section of said staple, and the tongue of one fastener and the tunnel of another are adapted to mutually engage one another when the tongue of each of a pair of fasteners is inserted in the tunnel of the other one of the pair of fasteners,

same direction so that the end of a plate closer to its notches faces the opposite end of the adjacent plate, said plates connected by a second backing to form a second chain.

2. The magazine of garment fasteners of claim 1,

wherein said base and the longitudinal tongue and base of said staple are about the same length. 

1. A magazine of garment fasteners, each fastener comprising a U-sectioned staple element one end of the base of which extends longitudinally perpendicular to the U-section forming a tongue, and each of the free limbs of the U-section comprising a shoulder portion and prong portion, the prong portion extending beyond and being narrower than the shoulder portion, said prongs adapted to be bent toward one another to engage a complementary base member, and said tongue being slightly narrower than the distance between the shoulder portions of the U-section; and a base member comprising a flat plate of about the same width as said staple, said base member having notches in the longitudinal edges thereof, closer to one end hereof, for receiving the prongs of said staple member, the distance between the inner edges of said notches being about equal to the distance between the prongs in the staple member, said base and said staple member being adapted to engage one another for forming an open tunnel between said base member and the Usection of said staple, and the tongue of one fastener and the tunnel of another are adapted to mutually engage one another when the tongue of each of a pair of fasteners is inserted in the tunnel of the other one of the pair of fasteners, said magazine comprising, a plurality of said staple members longitudinally aligned with the tongues of said staple members aligned in the same direction, each tongue facing the opposite end of the adjacent staple, and said staples connected by a first backing to form a first chain, and a plurality of said plates aligned with the end of said plates closer to the notches therein all facing the same direction so that the end of a plate closer to its notches faces the opposite end of the adjacent plate, said plates connected by a second backing to form a second chain.
 2. The magazine of garment fasteners of claim 1, wherein said base and the longitudinal tongue and base of said staple are about the same length. 